Settlement of Texas and Indigenous Groups

Settlement of Texas

The first European settlement in Texas was a direct result of the Pueblo Revolt.
Spanish and native refugees, including the Isleta and Socorro Pueblos from Northern New Mexico, fled to Texas.
In New Mexico, indigenous tribes were referred to by their Pueblo or town name.

The Isleta and Socorro Pueblos, along with Spanish and mixed-race people, were expelled from New Mexico by the Puebloans.
They settled near present-day El Paso and built the Mission Nuestra Senora del Carmen.
The settlement was named Isleta (with a "y") after the original Pueblo in New Mexico.
The natives were known as Tiwa or Tigua (both spellings: T I w a or T I g u a).
Isleta grew to include over 5,000 people within a century, consisting of small hamlets and ranchos.
Originally on the southern side of the Rio Grande, Isleta shifted to the north when the river changed course in the 1830s.
This occurred before the United States controlled the area and before large-scale Anglo-American settlement.

A presence had been established along the southern bank of the Rio Grande since 1659, predating the New Mexican refugees.
This area eventually became Ciudad Juarez, bordering El Paso.
The Mision de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe was built in what is now downtown Juarez and still stands.

The Payaya, a friendly group of hunter-gatherers, lived in the area of present-day San Antonio in the late 1600s.
They relied on the local pecan harvest, and called the San Antonio River "Yanaguana."

A Spanish settlement was founded in the area in 1718, along with the Mission San Antonio De Valero, which became the Alamo.
The name "Alamo" is Spanish for cottonwood.
The Payaya began to convert to Christianity at the Alamo mission, adopting Spanish customs, language, and clothing.
A military fort (presidio) named San Antonio De Bejar was established nearby.
Colonists from the Canary Islands founded a settlement next to the fort in 1781.

The settlement was vulnerable to raids from Plains tribes like the Comanche and Apache.
Raiding tribes would take captives, loot, and burn settlements.
The Presidio of San Antonio De La Pajaro was attacked by 400 Apache in 1845.
San Antonio eventually became the provincial capital of Texas from 1773 to 1824.

Spanish settlements were established further east in Goliad (1749) and Nagadocios (1799).
The people in these areas, particularly near Nagadocios, were Mississippian Caddoan people.
They built log cabins and burial mounds, similar to the Mississippian cultures.

Texas had diverse indigenous groups: Plains raiding tribes (Apache, Comanche), Puebloan people from New Mexico (El Paso), and Mississippian groups (East Texas).

The Apache are an Athabascan-speaking people of the Southern Plains, ranging from Arizona to Texas and into northern Mexico (Sonora and Chihuahua).
Their territory was known as the Apacheria, similar to the Comancheria for the Comanche.
The Apache were a nomadic raiding tribe who gained power with the acquisition of the horse, increasing their range and changing their culture.
They moved into the area around the 1300s, around the same time as the Aztec migration.
Before horses, they used small dogs to pull supplies, leading Francisco Coronado to call them "dog nomads."

The Apache include various bands and tribes such as the Chiricahua, Hikariya, Lipan, and Mescalero.
These groups have different dialects and cultural practices.
The Apache are related to the Navajo, sharing linguistic similarities, and traded with the Pueblo people in New Mexico.
They formed alliances, engaged in warfare, and intermarried with other tribes.
The Apache traded buffalo hides for corn and cotton cloth from the Pueblo people.

The Spanish and Apache negotiated a peace treaty in 1749, with the Apache promising not to raid Spanish settlements in exchange for goods.
The Apache then focused on fighting their enemies, the Comanche.
By the 1760s, the Apache were again raiding Spanish settlements, hindering Spanish cattle management.
In the 1770s, the Comanche joined the Spanish in fighting the Apache.
The Spanish played the indigenous tribes against each other, similar to how indigenous tribes played European empires against each other in other parts of Latin America.

The Comanche helped the Spanish subdue the Apache, leading many Apache to settle at missions.
This relative peace with the Spanish lasted until their departure in 1821.
However, some Apache bands continued to resist until Geronimo's capture by the U.S. in 1886.
The Apache were among the most resistant tribes to European encroachment, finally being subdued in 1886 with Geronimo's capture on the U.S.-Mexico border near Arizona.